THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE HUMAN ASTEROID

“When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible chords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.” John Muir

Throughout the history of the planet, there have been five previous major mass extinction events; from the Ordovician Silurian 450 million years ago, to the Cretaceous-Paleocene 66 million years ago, which is the most commonly acknowledged extinction event in which presumably an asteroid brought to end the age of the dinosaur.

Now you may be saying, thanks for that history lesson Ryan, how does this apply to me?”

Well, we are now in what scientists are calling the Anthropocene.

To the massive surprise to most of humanity, We are currently in the sixth mass extinction, right now, only this time we are the asteroid. Why does no one know this?

We so often break down the systemic corruption taking over this country, the ever-steady rise of the next chapter of this American experiment, and today’s discussion is no different. As much as past mass extinctions have been brought on by natural circumstances, what we are experiencing today, is by no means natural. The primary cause of the current extinction is human population growth and increased consumption.

All the right people are heralding the dangers of the massive change being witnessed, calling for those in positions of power to enact change, to stand up and call attention to what could be the most important and potentially the most deadly event humanity has ever faced.

Yet, as those in positions of power were once the ones to call upon in a time of such peril, today is much different. Those same individuals have become so invested in the very industries causing this current crisis, that they now refuse to address the heart of the problem, for fear of hurting their own interests.

Planet earth is 4.5 billion years old. Mankind, about 140,000 years old. If you condense the earth’s lifespan to 24 hours, then we have been here for 3 seconds, and look at what we have done to the planet.

As Prince Ea once said,

“We modestly named ourselves Homo-sapiens, meaning “Wise Man” but is humanity really so wise? smart yes, but not wise… wisdom is different. While intelligence speaks, wisdom listens and we willingly covered our ears to Mother natures screams, and closed our eyes to all of her help-wanted signs.”

We choose to look the other way and pretend our careless waste and consumption has no effect. Well there is always a catalyst that causes such an event as we are now witnessing, yet this time around, that catalyst is humanity itself.

In the next 10-100 years every beloved animal character in every children’s book is predicted to go extinct. Lions, tigers, elephants, polar bears, and on and on, in 3 seconds. In this current century, we are projected to lose 50% of the planet’s species, due to the actions taken by humanity, in 3 seconds.

This could very well be the most important point in the stage of human existence, and no one is paying attention. We are seeing 3-10 species go extinct every day, a kind of unraveling of the fabric of life. There is not a group of living things on earth not threatened by the current and coming extinction, including… us.